Why is Thomism so Fixated on Predestination? – Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Thomism, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Catholic, Philosophy, Catholicism

4.8 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fr. Cajetan Cuddy explains that Thomism is “fixated” on predestination because this doctrine lies at the speculative and practical center of the Thomistic vision of reality, uniting its key philosophical principles and theological convictions about God, creation, grace, and salvation in a single, coherent account.

This lecture was given on September 6th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., is a priest of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. He serves as the general editor of the Thomist Tradition Series, and he is co-author of Thomas and the Thomists: The Achievement of St. Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters. He has written for numerous publications on the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist Tradition.

Keywords: Blaise Pascal Provincial Letters, Contingency, Creator Creature Distinction, Divine Providence, Divine Causality, Grace and Human Freedom, Jean Baptiste Gonet Clippius Theologiae Thomisticae, Physical Premotion and Sacramental Causality, Predestination, Pure Nature, Universal Causality

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:13.1	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.5	To learn more and to attend these events,
0:21.7	visit us at Thomisticinstitute.org.
0:24.4	In the year 1659,
0:28.0	the Toulouse Dominican Jean-Baptiste Gonne,
0:30.4	published the first volume
0:32.1	and edition of his famous
0:33.7	Clippius Teologier Tomistice Contra
0:36.2	Novos Eus Impugnatorres, which, as we know, is the shield
0:41.0	of Thomistic theology against its new assailants. Noting that his was a, quote, fertile age of genius,
0:51.0	Gonaid deigns to break the deliberate silence and what he calls the peaceful repose of the 17th century
0:58.3	Thomist school amid so many tumults stirred up as he says in the Republic of Letters.
1:06.0	He is compelled to offer a fresh presentation of Thomistic theology because he considers his to be a time
1:12.2	characterized by an unparalleled devising of perilous opinions, which he says, quote,
1:19.6	some contrived to the ruin of the church, others fashioned to the destruction of souls.
1:26.7	The poetic Amico Lectore preface to Gones's Clipius reveals an author
1:32.3	who is not merely an intellectual fixated upon concepts and ideas but a religious and a priest,
1:39.3	consecrated to the truth, and for the salvation of souls.
1:47.0	He is intent to cover the whole of the Sacra Doctrina with punctilious fidelity to the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas
1:55.0	in a way that is pleasant to read, he emphasizes this, and useful for the critical needs of his time.
	...

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